The Aldens and Soo Lee didn’t waste any time getting to Computer City. They passed aisles of games without stopping to check the brightly colored boxes. They were in a hurry.
Henry went straight to the shelves of software designed to fix computer problems.
“That sign says, ‘Ringmaster II Coming Soon,’ ” Benny said. “It came to our house already.”
A young man in a red shirt came over.
“May I help you?”
“Do you have the Fix-It program?” Henry asked. “We’re having some problems with a computer network we’re on. I heard that Fix-It can help.”
The man handed a Fix-It box to Henry. “Here you go. Anything else?”
“No, but thanks,” Henry said. “Well, I do have one question. Are there any games where players somehow use photos to make up their own characters?”
The man laughed. “Whoever figures out how to make that idea work is going to be a millionaire. I’ve heard rumors that a couple of companies are trying something like that out—using a scanner to put photos of real people or places in a game to make it more realistic and fun. Of course, the photo-faces will move and change expression, too. Right now, I don’t think anybody has figured out exactly how a player can do that at home.”
The Aldens tried to hide their excitement. They had a feeling someone they knew was getting pretty close to figuring out exactly how to do that.
“Thanks,” Henry said to the salesman. “Okay, everybody, let’s go pay for this.”
There was a long line at the checkout counter. While Henry waited, the other children browsed through a display of new games. While they were reading the game boxes, they overheard a familiar voice talking loudly in the next aisle. It sounded like the person was talking on the phone.
“It doesn’t matter that it won’t work,” a woman’s voice said. “I just have to show up with something. When it doesn’t work, that will give us more time.”
Jessie put her finger to her lips when she noticed Benny was about to say something. “Shhh,” she whispered. “Let’s go.” Benny took Soo Lee’s hand and they started walking.
After the Aldens left the store, Benny blurted out to Henry what he had been holding in. “Jane Driver was in the store, but she didn’t see us.”
Henry was amazed. “Everywhere we go, she goes.”
“Never mind that,” Jessie said. “Everywhere she goes, Ned Porter goes, too. There’s his green car in the corner of the parking lot.”
The Aldens waved several times at Ned. First he ignored them. Then he started his car and left the parking lot in a hurry.
When the children got home, they saw a familiar blue bicycle leaning against the picket fence.
“Isn’t that Andy’s bike?” Benny asked as they went inside through the kitchen door. “I’m going to give him that piece of paper he dropped.”
“Shhh,” Jessie said. “Let’s wait to see what he says first. I want to find out why he keeps coming over here.”
Mrs. McGregor spied the Computer City bag Henry was carrying. “Another computer bag?” she said. “Your friend Andy just went into the den with a bag from that store. I hope you didn’t both buy the same thing.”
“I sure hope not, Mrs. McGregor,” Henry said.
When Andy saw the children come into the den, he clicked off the screen he’d been working on. He picked up a Computer City bag and pulled out his own Fix-It software box.
“Wait!” Henry said, holding up his own bag. “We just bought the same program. I think we can take over now. You must have a lot of other things to do at QuestMaster.”
Andy seemed very nervous. “Well, this morning C.D. said to come over anyway.”
Henry looked at Andy for a long time. “Are you sure? He told us he was going to the city to get a special chip Jane was supposed to get.”
Andy’s face grew pale. “What are you talking about?”
Henry decided to be mysterious. “Nothing we can talk about. Now maybe you can tell us why you left so fast when we ran into you at the Big Dipper. And why you’re here again.”
Andy swallowed hard before he answered. “I told you. I’m supposed to help get the network going from your computer.”
Henry was usually pretty easygoing, but not today. “Well, this is our computer now, and we need to learn how to fix it ourselves. Thanks for offering to help, but don’t bother installing the Fix-It program. We’ll use our own.”
Benny tugged on Jessie’s hand. He showed her the crumpled paper he’d picked up at the ice-cream stand. Jessie shook her head as if to say no.
Too late. Andy spotted the paper. He blushed. “Where’d you get that? I was looking for it. I have some notes on there that I need. I guess I dropped it—by mistake, of course.”
Jessie stepped in front of Benny. “Hold on a second, Andy. Tell us what’s on it first. Maybe it doesn’t belong to you.”
“It’s an appointment I wrote down that Jane had at three o’clock today,” he said, reaching for the paper.
Jessie pulled it away. “But that’s not exactly what it says. It must belong to someone else.”
With five pairs of eyes staring at him, Andy Porter knew the Aldens weren’t handing over that note. He turned and left.
After she heard the door close, Jessie read the note. “Andy was wrong. He said the name was Jane, but it says Nadje.”
Henry put down the Fix-It box he was about to open. “Wait a minute. Repeat what you just said.”
Jessie wrinkled her forehead. “Okay. The name on this paper is Nadje. ... Hmmm. Nadje looks an awful lot like Jane. It has the same letters plus the first letter of her last name—D.”
“But Nadje is a two-faced witch,” Benny said, “and Jane is just a regular person.”
“Maybe Jane is two-faced!” Jessie said excitedly. “Maybe she acts one way at QuestMaster but another way ...” Her voice trailed off.
She turned to Henry. “Didn’t C.D. say he was having a meeting tomorrow?”
Henry nodded.
“Okay. Here’s what we do,” Jessie went on. “Let’s bring this computer to the office. We’ll say we were having problems with it and ask Jane, Ned, and Andy to help us out. There’s something about our Ringmaster II program that is different. I have a feeling one of those people knows what it is.” |